Jan. 20, 2010

Anne Andrews, the new president of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association, congratulated other officers and award-winners Saturday evening in Newport Beach. In her swearing-in speech, Andrews called on her members to support the courts and judicial salaries during the current economic downturn. “We can’t sit idly by and let budgetary concerns whittle away our core values,” she said. A partner in Irvine’s Andrews & Thornton who specializes in mass tort cases involving drugs and medical devices, Andrews also promised to oppose Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s call for a $250,000 cap on pain-and-suffering damages in all tort cases. “Such an artifi cial limit only fosters the crass calculation [by businesses] that even if we are caught, we can afford the consequences,” Andrews said. The justice system must remain “free of inappropriate political interference,” she said.